Exploring the language use in selected the Sun iPaper headlines (Online Newspaper)

Mass media plays a vital role in people's lives. Newspapers are a type of media that can attract people through language use. A variety of printed as well as online newspapers are easily available to attract readers. Nevertheless, in English newspapers, learners of English (ESL) found it confusing to understand news headlines due to its language use. Thus, this study aimed at examining the language use of selected newspaper headlines focusing on its lexical features and functional types. The data for this present study comprises of nine headlines of the Sun iPaper collected for Monday issue for two months (January and February 2024) serve as convenience sampling. This study employed quantitative and qualitative research approach whereby the analysis of lexical features used was drawn from the Tense System in Headlines Analysis by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik (1985) and Mardh's model — Typical Linguistic Features of Newspaper Headlines (1980) was used in analysing the functional types of news headlines. The findings suggested that the usage of noun and statement outnumbered other forms of lexical items and functional types of the selected newspaper headlines of the Sun iPaper (online newspaper). The findings of the study may contribute to the existing knowledge in lexical features, stylistics and language as well as media because understanding of news headlines can be useful and beneficial in helping ESL students in their classroom context.